Overview
Over the last 50 years, a significant amount of research and clinical expertise has been devoted to characterizing the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the developing fetus. Simultaneously, a variety of systems and approaches have also emerged to provide diagnostic guidance for the related diagnoses.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is now widely used to describe the resultant sequelae associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. Despite ongoing pressure to develop a consensus around diagnostic approaches for FASD, different multidisciplinary diagnostic systems continue to emerge.
Recently, significant differences in diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were revealed after comparing the 2005 Canadian diagnostic guidelines and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition diagnosis Neurobehavioural disorder
associated with prenatal alcohol exposure (ND-PAE).
Although considerable overlap was identified between both sets of criteria, the neurobehavioural domains assessed for a ND-PAE diagnosis limited the identification of patients with FASD.
Similarly, two recent…
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